Pictures of prisoners above the bar guarding the bar. Actions and posters of popular movements on the plank next to the W.C.: Program of the EHZ Festibala at the II Festival Elektrotxaranga. Meeting, round table against the Mordaza Law... A couple of adults in the neighborhood eat a combined dish while young people drink coffee in the window. The ETB-2 mudable informative, the album by Benito Lertxundi sets out on Thursday at noon at the bar Herria de Donostia. It is one of the 107 hospitality establishments that the National High Court has ordered its confiscation in Spain.

Asociación Abardena de Tudela, Aitzaga de Usurbil, Aitzgorri de Vitoria-Gasteiz, Urretxuko Erani, Intxaurre de Durango, Amaiur de Markina-Xemein, Lazkaoko Ansozu ategi, Otsati de Artziniega, Aretxabaleta de Lari Spanish judges have created a black list of bars and societies that are forced to close in Hego Euskal Herria.

“We see that, after 14 years of trial, the Spanish State does not want to lose this legal struggle at all. Everything is ETA for maintaining the thesis has done a lot of barbarity and now they are not going to go back. We will pay, the next ones will pay, and so we will continue until the Government of Spain changes or we manage to change the position of the State.”

They are words of Joseba Álvarez, charged in summary 35/02, who has participated in a trial that has lasted 14 years. In a 785 page sentence, in addition to ordering the confiscation of the Herriko Taberna and Associations, they have been reduced the penalty of three years in prison that they were asked for in advance for the prolongation of the trial for more than a decade and have condemned Joseba Permach, Rufi Etxeberria, Karmelo Landa and Juan Kruz Altzale to one year and 10 months. Floren Aoiz, Antton Morcillo and Jon Gorrotxategi have been sentenced to one and a half years in prison for a wrongful murder offence. Finally, a further twelve people have been sentenced to one year and three months in prison by the Herriko Taberna. Nobody will have to go to jail.

“Going to jail for the fourth time at age 57 and losing a job is not a joke, so saving him is great news. However, the sentence is politically bad, because they maintain the accusation and continue with the same thesis”. Alvarez believes that the wrong decision dela.Udazkenean will fall to the members of Askapena, to the political leadership of Batasuna arrested in the Segura operation, and then to the lawyers of the prisoners, to the members of Herrira... More than 100 people are awaiting trial at the National Court.

Several Herriko Tabernas and associations have remained closed for the 14 years that the trial has lasted. The order will therefore affect some 90 employees of the successful tenderer. In total, around 150 people are going to lose their jobs because of the closure of these premises.

Defence of Herriko Tabernas

Txerra Bolinaga, from the Eleak movement, dressed in an orange t-shirt, has taken the floor. After hearing the ruling, they announced in Zarautz that the representatives of all the local bars will be defended in defence of those of Herria. “This is neither Spain nor France, you are in the Basque Country” in the window for tourists, Libre zuria pertsiana orange.

"Just as we defend the defendants, we are going to defend those of Herría. We will continue to add commitments to the attacks and to defend the civil and political rights of all. This people has made it clear: there is no government, police, judge or work that will stop us once and for all.”

Since the beginning of the wall dynamics, in recent months work has been done on the consolidation of a disobedient movement. From Eleak, they claim that helping with the answer in the case of the Herriko Tabernas is a great challenge. “This has different characteristics than have been the case so far. It’s 107 Herriko Tabernas and partnerships, a very large number, and that’s not an easy challenge,” says Bolinaga.

These associations, besides belonging to the Abertzale left, are also condemned persons, so they have constituted a mixed motor group. “The Abertzale left has a lot to say on this issue, it is directly involved, and we are satisfied with the mixed meetings, within the framework of the Free Dynamic, because we all agree that we must respond in disobedient key.”

In each of the villages where the Herriko Tabernas are and the associations are formed groups. The lawyers of the defendants, moreover, have indicated that they will fight from town to town by appeal.

Complex operation

When will the premises be closed? In July? In August? In September? In the autumn? Álvarez has been convinced that the deadline is 30 July, as the judges take a vacation and the substitute judge who will enter in August will not touch the hot potato. If so, with the campaign “The Free and Open People”, they intend to work for this cause throughout the summer, serving to seek support in the festivities.

However, it should be remembered that the judgment of the summary 2002/35 was given by the Spanish National Court on 30 July 2014, the last day before the holidays.

Before or after the month of August, closure will not be easy and can be expected to be long. The closure is legally complex, since the owners are different people to people, so each one of the spaces needs its own legal procedure. Moreover, despite the organization of a gigantic police operation, the fortuitous closure of all together seems impossible.

With the news of the first closures, a political earthquake is expected, and throughout Euskal Herria, with a formula agreed in each town, hundreds of citizens will mobilize to make it difficult to close their neighborhoods or areas. In this case, the Municipal Police must evict the municipal premises and subsequently seal them. On this occasion there is no need to make inventories. Once sealed, it is possible to break the seal and re-enter some sites, considerably lengthening the police operation, although it is known that this entails a more severe penalty for those inside. Once the orders are fulfilled, the intention is to auction the premises and the money raised will be for the Spanish State. As an ironic message read on social networks indicates, it will finally be the State that is funded through the Herriko Tabernas.

“The phase of resistance is being prepared with great enthusiasm in some peoples.” According to Álvarez, one must think of a format of multiple resistance, so that as many people as possible participate. From disobedience outside the premises, to resistance techniques usually used in gaztetxes and other evictions, various resistance exercises are being prepared. “We have to get right in the diversity of disobedience.” Bolinaga has insisted on the word “flexibility”, making it clear that in each case he will be given a different answer.

The Spanish State in a serious crisis

Jokin Uranga arrived at the Orkatz bar of Azpeitia through the Bertsos school. They began to organize bertsolarism performances and have later ended up working on other cultural dynamics. It is one of the most dedicated teams in space defense.

He has shown his satisfaction because many people have told them that what is happening is unfair, “and not just the people on the Abertzale left,” and he says that they are receiving great support. Uranga believes that this is a further attack on the independence left, in the line initiated by Baltasar Garzón. “They want us out of the dynamics of the street.”

Koldobike Muniain, a native of Zarautz, took the floor on behalf of the Herriko Tabernas in the act of denouncing the sentence. “Herriko’s theft will become the symbol of the powerlessness of a state that steals locals and spaces to the base of the Abertzale left and has lost political battle.”

Muniain believes that the Supreme Court will repeat the theft of premises and property that the fascists committed in 1936 in Hego Euskal Herria to Republicans and Abertzales. In this regard, they have pointed out that in Europe there has been no theft of goods from a political movement in recent decades.

“The state is in crisis, they want to keep it in one way or another, and the only thing they know how to do is to increase repression.” According to Álvarez, the social activation that is taking place at the state level is "quite evident". Millions of unemployed, the process of independence of Catalonia, the new phenomena such as Podemos, the “hasty” reform of the monarchy, the cases of corruption... “The PP knows that this phase is about to end.”

According to Álvarez, the political climate that has been created in Euskal Herria further weakens the State, which responds to more macro-trials, the Mordaza Law, the new Penal Code, to the fact that the issue of prisoners does not move... They are very concerned and want to leave the thing as closely as possible, in their view.

Even though lawyers have told them that they will not close before the summer, they do not trust him. “We look at ourselves, we are doing the things we have to do little by little, because we have made a strong team. On the one hand, how to make closing difficult in the disobedient key; and on the other, how the new Corzo should be facing the future”.

Joseba Álvarez claims that when a certain group of citizens is attacked the whole of society, and does not believe that it is the Abertzale left that has to answer.

“We have been shut down by the media, we have banned parties, we have banned movements… and we have always created new ones. Here we have to do the same, and if we take the opportunity to turn the concept of the Herriko Tabernas, great.” Álvarez considers that the resistance to protecting these premises is cyclical and more important the next step: “What spaces do we need to provide more open spaces for the organization and socio-political movements?”

These bars were born in the 1980s. "It was another situation, another phase, the confrontation with the conflict in Euskal Herria was another, and the Abertzale left acted differently. That has changed, and we also have to change these things.” The discussion is on the table.

It says that in self-managed social centers, for example, there are enriching experiences. So that these spaces of militancy and coordination, instead of creating spaces around a party, based on other values, acquire a broader character. "What spaces does the left need, which is posed in a broad way?" ", Álvarez has asked.

“People are thinking, they’re going to give us a big blow and economically sure that we’ll go wrong, but as on previous occasions, I’m sure we’ll get stronger,” says Uranga.

The intention is to strengthen disobedience

Txerra Bolinaga has recognized that the disobedient movement is not yet able to move the positions of the State, but sees no choice but to delve into the same path. It says that more and more people are willing to work in the movement and that they feel that accession is increasing. Thus, many of the groups that will be set up in defence of the Herriko Tabernas and Associations see possibilities of joining the civil and political rights groups at a later date. “This is growing because this struggle motivates people and we have great challenges ahead.”

Álvarez has been convinced of the importance of the concept of political dissent as one of the fundamental axes. Troika, evictions, undemocratic social model, migratory behavior, cheap layoffs... Neoliberalism behaves more visibly than ever before, says citizenship. “That’s where a strong alternative from the left can be structured and where we must put the attack on Herriko’s.”

“It’s an attack on the symbols of a part of that political dissent from Euskal Herria, but in the end they want to hit one of the motors of all this, the feeling of transformation.”

In July, the Spanish State passed the Moorish Law and the new Penal Code established by the Abortion Law. “We are clear that we cannot be frightened, if we have not.” Bolinaga believes that we must do mass disobedience to fight. “It’s like the whistles in the Spanish hymn on the football grounds; if you just whistle, it’s yours; if you do 100,000 you can’t do anything. Here it is.”

Gradually, Eleak members feel that the snowball is increasing. “We go all together, we are working very happy with those of Askapena, now I see sortu in the same keys, other initiatives have started... We are clear on the way, and the truth is that we are convinced that we have no other path: we have to increase this snowball of disobedience if we come to condition the state.”